“So as to give them courage we must teach people to be shocked by themselves.”

Weimar Cinema Prompt (303)

I’ll probably fiddle with this in the next couple of days. Meantime, it’s more than enough to work with:

As discussed by Roberts and Suchsland, Weimar cinema encompasses many genres of narrative film including gothic horror (ex. The Golem, Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). Yet even films that do not include explicitly gothic materials explore the experience of modernity using a dark lens.

Consult Villarejo and the Yale Film Analysis Guide in order to undertake a formal analysis of three Weimar Era films. You will also need to research outside secondary sources such as film criticism and relevant historiography. How do the formal techniques employed by the makers of these films dramatize the contradictions and driving forces of interwar Europe?